DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

The invasion of Comcast linemen in July brought a surprise in the mail last week — a postcard announcing the availability of “high speed Internet” via digital cable.

After having been stuck with ISDN for the past year, I was deeply hungry for a bandwidth upgrade. ISDN is not broadband. Although it is adequate, by which I mean, I’m able to telecommute, the slow connection definitely caused delays and frustration. For example, a big email attachment could take 2 or 3 minutes to download, during which time my connection would be saturated, so I would be unable to work on anything else.

However, Comcast is not a company I wanted to do business with. A story from earlier in the summer convinced me that I could never trust the company. According to SF Chronicle columnist and privacy advocate David Lazarus,

Beginning this month, the cable giant’s 4,300 Bay Area employees — and their families — are being offered $1.50 for every dish they report that isn’t already in a database of known satellite subscribers that Comcast is quietly compiling.

Why does Comcast want the address of satellite dish users? So they can target such households with anti-satellite propaganda.

This is wrong in so many ways. It’s loathsome. If you’re not offended yet, think about it this way: Your neighbors are selling private information about you for $1.50. It sort of gives a new meaning to “neighborhood watch,” doesn’t it? The trend here is frightening — how long until everyone in the neighborhood receives a survey and questionnaire asking what kinds of cars the neighbors drive, how many kids they have, how often they eat out, and at what restaurants, etc? Communities are based on trust, not on espionage.

So I was sitting there looking at the postcard, wondering what was more important to me — broadband Internet, or sticking by my principle of not doing business with companies whose policies offend me. I thought about it for a long time.

The money is an issue. The perverted thing about ISDN is that it’s really expensive. I’m paying about $120/month for a 128kb/sec connection. In contrast, cable internet costs $60/month, and offers 2x to 15x as much bandwidth. In other words: half the cost, ten times the speed. If you subtract the “big brother” aspect, the question has only one logical answer.

I had to, at least, investigate. I called Comcast’s customer service line. Repeatedly. I quizzed their sales reps about privacy. I harassed their tech support folks about bandwidth and reliability. In every case, I was met not with evasion and excuses, or by offshore script-reading drones, but by helpful and articulate people who seemed honestly willing to answer my questions. I wasn’t about to demand that they change their spy-on-your-neighbors policy; the dish owners will have to organize that effort themselves. But I was pleased to learn that Comcast offers a total opt-out. If they’re true to their word, I won’t get any solicitations from Comcast or of their “partners.”

In short, I was impressed. For a faceless behemoth, Comcast does a great job of personal attention. I signed up.

On Friday, their technician dropped a new line into my office. I plugged in the modem I’d bought for $50 on ebay. The connection came up immediately. My first bandwidth test showed an astounding 2182 kb/sec — 18x faster than ISDN.

OK, I think I’m going to go shop for an SUV now.